Tactical Urbanism is a phase which has been greatly debated around the office. Is it pretentious? Is it exclusive? Or is it brilliant? Regardless of the name, the innovative, bottom-up approach to placemaking is slowly taking over our cities and I love it.
Lighting can be a very powerful and effective tool that is often underused in landscape. Frequently the approach to lighting in the landscape has a concentration on lighting for safety, and lighting for mood or effect is often forgotten. Where there is a relationship between the lighting engineers and landscape architect it is possible to create lighting schemes that enhance the design of a space.
It is important to learn from history, to examine the past in a bid to better the future. The same can be said for cities and their urban history. Our cities tell a story of many lifetimes and generations, lasting far longer than you and me, and with it leave important lessons for us to learn from. A recent trip to China once again highlighted the importance of history in my eyes and I will attempt to convey it to you through a comparison between two, ever growing, ever evolving world cities: Shanghai and Beijing.
Since 2007, for the first time in history more than 50% of the world’s population live in cities. It is predicted that every week until 2050, more than one million new people will move to urban areas. Cities are becoming more important than ever and the issue of urban growth is one that is becoming very apparent. Cities and urbanisation provide both the source of our problems and the source of the necessary solutions. This journal entry begins to explore these ideas.
